This article contains some ways that you can improve your music production experience if you are using a Mac computer.

You might view this article if you experience these problems:

• Pops, clicks, humming and distorted sounds when you record or playback audio.
• A delay between when you play your instrument/microphone/MIDI instrument and hearing the sound from your speakers/headphones. The technical term for this is LATENCY. 
• Your computer operates slowly.

Please Note: If you do not feel comfortable with the below steps, please contact an Apple specialist for further assistance.

Free up space

Don’t let your computer’s main drive get too full. Always make sure you leave at least 20% of your computer's main drive empty. To see how much space is left on your drive:

1. Open the Apple menu by clicking the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Select ‘About this Mac’ 
3. Select ‘Storage’ 

This window shows you how much free space is left on your main drive and other connected drives. Select Manage > Review Files to see which files are taking up the most space. If you are no longer using any files in this list, you can remove them.

Please note, if you are not sure what a particular file does, removing it without prior research is not recommended.

Use enough memory

If you are running large projects involving sample libraries and multiple plugins. at least 8GB of RAM is recommended.

Use a suitable USB cable for your Hardware

Make sure you use a short USB cable, either the one that comes in the box or one that is shorter than 2 metres. Using longer USB cables with your interface can cause dropouts, glitches or may not work entirely.

Ensure your interface has its own dedicated USB port

USB hubs are known to cause issues with audio devices. These issues can include noise, disconnections and even the interface not being detected at all. Therefore, it is recommended that your interface is connected directly to its own USB port.

Close all other background applications

When you run your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), make sure you close applications that are not in use, such as

• Music streaming apps (Spotify, Music etc.)
• Web browsers (Chrome, Safari etc.)
• Office applications (Word, Excel etc.)

This will free up your CPU, allowing your system to allocate more resources to your DAW.

Optimise Focusrite software

If your interface utilises drivers or control software, please ensure that you have the latest version(s) installed. You can find the latest version for your device on our Downloads Page.

Please Note: Only Saffire, Clarett Thunderbolt and Red interfaces require drivers.

Remove unnecessary network connections

In Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network and make sure to remove any Network Adapters you are not currently using for Internet or LAN connections.  Having ports you use for audio set to also be used for Networking can eat up their bandwidth which is needed for smooth audio streaming.

• If you have a Saffire or Clarett Thunderbolt Interface make sure to remove any Firewire, Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt Bridge or Thunderbolt Firewire listings.
• If you have a Scarlett or other USB Interface make sure to remove any USB-connected items, such as BlueTooth PAN, BlueTooth DUN, Android or iPhone connections, etc, as these devices are often internally connected to your USB Bus.
• If you have a Thunderbolt Interface remove all Thunderbolt items unless you specifically use them for Networking, such as a Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter.  If you are using a Thunderbolt Network adapter and Thunderbolt Audio Interface please try to keep them on separate busses.

Remove startup items

1. Open the Apple menu by clicking the Apple Logo in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Select 'System Preferences'.
3. Select 'Users & Groups'.
4. Select the 'Login Items' tab and remove any startup items.

Disable energy-saving features

1. Open the Apple menu by clicking the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Select 'System Preferences'.
3. Select 'Energy Saver'.
4. Set 'Turn display off after:' to Never.
5. Ensure that "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is NOT checked.

If you are using a laptop running macOS Big Sur will need to follow the below steps:

1. Open the Apple menu by clicking the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Select 'System Preferences'.
3. Select 'Battery'.
4. Select 'Power Adaptor'
5. Set 'Turn display off after:' to Never.
6. Ensure that "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is NOT checked.

Repair disk permissions

1. Open Finder.
2. Select Applications.
3. Find and open the 'Utilities' folder.
4. Open the 'Disk Utility' application.
5. Select your main drive and click 'Repair Disk Permissions'. 

Please Note: In some versions of macOS "Repair Disk Permissions" is called "First Aid".

After you have completed these steps, please restart your computer.

Additional optimisation steps

• If you have anti-virus software installed (e.g. Norton Anti-virus) please turn it off while recording.
• Please ensure that Airport mode is turned off while recording.
• If you do not have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse turn off Bluetooth while recording.
• In Apple Menu > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall make sure Firewall is Off.

If this article hasn't helped you, please feel free to search again at the top of this page or, to contact support, please click here.